TNA Impact 1-14-10 Thoughts and Recap

Last Thursday evening, TNA Wrestling presented their final episode of IMPACT before their first PPV on the new year, Genesis. With little to no matches announced for TNA Genesis before this night, how did TNA attempt to virtually build an entire card in one night? Let’s get to the review, and we’ll find out!

Generation Me Defeated The Motor City Machine Guns

For those of you who don’t already know, Generation Me is the team of The Young Bucks, as they’re known throughout the independent circuit. To my surprise, this match was given plenty of time, and featured great, great aerial action throughout, with Generation Me hitting their trademark maneuvers and double teams formally seen in the independents. These two young men also had some new ring attire, sporting some black jeans with chain, similar to the Hardy Boys look when they first entered the WWE. I was also pleasantly surprised when Generation Me picked up the victory following their AMAZING finisher, a sommersault drop into a 450 splash from one of the brothers, followed by a moonsault from the other! Great young time, with endless potential!

Next, Kurt Angle came out to the ring, and announced that it would be himself vs. AJ Styles one last time at Genesis for the title. AJ then came out, and talked about how this would be Kurt’s last title shot of 2010. AJ and Kurt preceded to cut a promo together, and shook hands agreeing to find out who truly is the best wrestler in the business at Genesis. Again, come Genesis, this should be another incredible match between two world class professional wrestlers! As the segment came to an end, the masked man who has been attacking AJ over the last couple of months, came out, laid AJ out, and revealed himself to be Tomko, as many of us already suspected. It was announced that these two would face one on one for the title in the main event of the evening.

Hamada And Awesome Kong Defeated Madison Rayne And Velvet Sky

Before this match officially began, we saw the return of Angelina Love, who was sitting at ringside. What a crappy way to have her return! Couldn’t they have done this is some sort of a surprising fashion at Genesis? Anyway, this was basically just a short little squash type of match, to put over the new tag champs, Kong and Hamada, as a true force to be reckoned with, in the ranks of the Knockout’s tag devision. After the match, Angelina Love jumped the rail, and ran into the ring to check on her former stable members, but to everyone’s surprise, she attacked both Rayne and Sky, beating them both out of the ring and at ringside as well! At least this was a surprise! Could be an interesting enough feud between these ladies.

Team 3D Defeated Lethal Consequences

Immediately, Team 3D hit the 3D, and then got the quick pin. This was basically just done to setup the aftermath involving the Nasty Boys, who were still trashing Team 3D’s locker room this week. Team 3D ran backstage, and smashed open their locker room door with an axe! They were then attacked from behind from the Nasty Boys, who left them laying. As I have said before, this could be a decent little feud, with a lot of tag team history involved. These two teams could also have a few stiff, hardcore matches together, although I don’t think they will have a match at Genesis, for nothing has been said about that yet. Once again, I have no problem with TNA putting these two veteran teams in a feud together, so long as the major focus of the company is the young talent.

After this segment, Sean Morley came out to the ring, and announced that he would be doing some directing, through TNA films. Probably some “adult films”. LOL! He was soon interrupted by Daniels, who cut Morley down, claiming that he wasn’t about to loose his spot to some old veteran just waltzing his way into TNA. Daniels eventually attacked Morley, giving him the BME. Morley preceded to fight back, and ended up clotheslining Daniels to the outside. As i said previously in my Genesis preview, with only one segment to set this PPV match up, they did a pretty decent job of creating an interesting enough story-line between the two, and their match at genesis should be fairly entertaining at the very least.

Beer Money INC And Matt Morgan And Hernandez Ended In No Contest

After only about 2 minutes or so of wrestling, Rob Terry came out and brawled to the back with Hernandez, which let to the no contest finish. Decent way to lead up to the Morgan/Hernandez vs. British Invasion tag title bout at Genesis, at the last minute. Earlier in the evening, Beer Money went into Eric Bischoff’s office, and demanded a match with “The Band”, formerly known as the NWO, so they could prove that they are the top, elite tag team in professional wrestling today. Now, as they stood in the center of the ring, they were attacked by “The Band” and beaten down. The men were eventually separated by security. These two teams will know officially go at it this Sunday. As I said in my preview, why isn’t Sean Waltman in this match? He’s obviously in the best shape of the three. Anyway, this should be an alright match, but would really make me happy if Beer Money went over. Will Beer Money in fact go over, or will “The Band” get the win, and prove that Hulk Hogan sticks with the click?

Desmond Wolfe Defeated Samoa Joe

“The Pope”, who Wolfe will face at Genesis, did some color commentary during Wolfe’s match with Samoa Joe, and the two intensely locked eyes after Wolfe got the win, in what was a decent match, but really could have been a great match had it been given a more plentiful amount of time. I like that Wolfe is now in the winning column once again, but I can;t help but feel that Samoa Joe, who was once the top guy in the TNA, is getting the shaft lately, although he does have that world title shot briefcase, so I guess he’ll be in the main events after the AJ/Kurt deal is all said and done.

After all of these months of this mystery attacker jumping AJ, he’s finally revealed to be AJ’s former friend Tomko, and AJ beats him in 5 minutes with a Pele? TNA will probably continue this feud after Genesis, with Tomko potentially costing AJ the title, or else this whole thing would have been a complete waste of time. If we end up seeing Kurt win the belt, I predict that AJ will go on to feud with Tomko, and Angle will feud with either Desmond Wolfe or Samoa Joe over the title. During this match, Ric Flair was a special guest on commentary. Two weeks in TNA, and Flair hasn’t even stepped inside the ring to do so much as cut a promo? Seems that TNA has been misusing Flair lately. Anyway, after AJ got the win, Tomko continued the beat down, until Kurt Angle ran out and saved him. Kurt attempted to shake AJ’s hand, but AJ blew him off, storming angrily to the back. Nice way to create more tension between these two, leading into their match at Genesis.

Overall, this was a decent episode of IMPACT, and really did a good job of promoting Genesis at the last minute. This shows that TNA has the ability to work on their toes if necessary. They also did a good job of hyping the huge superstar who will be debiting for TNA Sunday. Chances are, it’s going to be Ken Anderson, but I’m hoping it will be RVD! TNA may also throw a curveball, and have it be Sid Vicious, who has been in talks with those within TNA for quite some time now. Anyway, TNA had a good go home show here, and I look forward to the surprises Genesis brings!

Todd Frizzell is from Columbus Ohio, and has been a huge professional wrestling fanatic for the last ten years. Todd is very interested in all aspects of pro wrestling, including what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling. Todd is very excited to write about his passion, and will try his best to entertain and provoke the wrestling fans.

Eric is the owner and editor-in-chief of the Camel Clutch Blog. Eric has worked in the pro wrestling industry since 1995 as a ring announcer in ECW and a commentator/host on television, PPV, and home video. Eric also hosted Pro Wrestling Radio on terrestrial radio from 1998-2009. Check out some of Eric's work on his IMDB bio and Wikipedia. Eric has an MBA from Temple University's Fox School of Business.

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